Crafty South Africa

There is no doubt in my mind that South Africans are craft or crafting fanatics. People in South Africa produce remarkable ranges of arts and crafts. These people you’ll find on pavements and markets of big city streets – with every possible form of traditional artwork.

Hand-woven handbags

These forms of art range from pretty tableware, embroidered cloths, to the simplest of items like key rings and candle-holders. In addition to the standard materials such as beads, grass, leather, fabric and clay, pieces are made using telephone wire, cold drink cans, bottle tops, and plastic bags – you will even find tin labels being used to create brightly coloured papier mache bowls.

On sale from many a South African street are objects made of wire – representations of:

·         the globe,

·         cars and;

·          motorcycles.

Woven baskets

Markets, shops and collectives dealing in African craft thrive to provide much-needed employment and income to communities such as the Northern Cape Schmidtsdrift community of displaced San people, who specialise in producing paintings that constitute an imaginative and highly coloured extension of ancient rock art. Another community is the Fugitive’s Drift in KwaZulu-Natal, which offers a major variety in basketry.

There are several important collections of African art in South Africa, such as the Standard Bank collection at the Gertrude Posel Gallery at Wits University in Johannesburg, or the Durban Art Gallery.

At the Rooftop Market at Johannesburg's Rosebank Mall, and at its African Craft Market, work from all over the continent pushes for buyers' attention. Many merchants and organisations sell craft goods online.